It
All began back in 1996 when 2 friends, Jaxon Boin (today’s
SATURATION POINT) and Slobodan Vasiljkovic (HATE SPEECH) formed a
garage band called “KATANA”. Under the musical influence of
metal gods Iron Maiden they bought their first instruments and
began writing their first songs as they improved their skills,
Jaxon to that of a bass virtuoso and Slobodan as a modest rhythm
guitarist. By 1998 Jaxon also began collaborating with the band
“EMBASSY”. He called Slobodan telling him “EMBASSY” had
planned to record a 4 track demo the very next day and asked if
Slobodan would assist them and write the lyrics and also sing on
the tracks. The next day they successfully recorded the demo even
though it was the first time Slobodan met and collaborated with
the other band members.
After
a short run with “EMBASSY” Slobodan quits the band and hangs
up his guitar as he was recovering from alcoholism. After the 1999
N.A.T.O bombing of Serbia, from where both of Slobodan’s parents
moved from to Australia, Slobodan decides to pick up his guitar
again and names his new project “HATE SPEECH”. Metal was still
recovering from the drought in the 90’s when Slobodan moves to
Serbia in 2002 and meets a young metal enthusiast Goran Jovanovic
who had recently began playing guitar. Providing help to Goran,
Slobodan himself advances his own skills in soloing and rhythm
guitar. Living in Serbia which was financially devastated due to
the break-up of the former Yugoslavia the country still had a very
strong underground metal scene but getting a band together with
appropriate musicians proved to be very hard and “HATE SPEECH”
lagged as the years passed.
In
2006 Goran Jovanovic joined “PRANAGON” a band formed by metal
orientated youths in the small town of Krusevac. “PRANAGON”
splits in 2007 and Goran asked Slobodan whether he would be
willing to join Marko (Geronimo) Stankovic-VOCALS, Marko
(Pavarotti) Petrovic-DRUMS and himself Goran Jovanovic-GUITAR in
forming a new band. Slobodan accepted and the band started playing
under the working title of “HATE SPEECH”, without a bass
player and financial funding for adequate equipment the process
was slow. In mid 2008 Marko Stankovic-VOCALS quits due to
disagreement of the band’s name and frustration in the lack of
progress. All seems lost as the band is reduced to 3 members but
not ready to call it quits just yet Slobodan takes on the job of
VOCALS and SONGWRITING while continuing to play LEAD/RHYTHM GUITAR
and “HATESPEECH” continues to write material in spite of the
hardships. Finally in October 2008 the young Mihajlo Petrovic (not
related with Marko) joins “HATE SPEECH” and the band is
finally complete. Working exclusively on their own material
“HATE SPEECH” played local gigs and capitalized by playing on
Labors Day 2009 in front of a crowd of 4000 people in the town
square (Trg Kosovskih Junaka) of Krusevac.
Musically
“HATE SPEECH” focuses on thrash metal opposed to the ever more
popular progressive metal scene and hardcore scene, which has
flooded the market and become mainstream. From Head-banging
gallops to orgasmic harmonies to plane bone shattering speed
metal; “HATE SPEECH” is unique, while maintaining the 80’s
thrash metal sound in the new millennium. Born in darkness,
despair and on the ruins of dreams “Hate Speech” harnesses and
transforms these energies into a release for all the down trodden
and non-conformist's of this hedonistic world to listen to.
Enjoy…
